Okay, I was talking about this with moonshayde yesterday, but I had to sleep so I didn't get to continue that very interesting conversation, so I'm lj-ing it. And I've discussed this in abyssinia4077 's lj, too, but hey. 

There's some worries around at the moment that Stargate fandom is going to wind down after the show ends. Personally, I'm not really worried about that happening – at least not for years – but on the other hand, I definitely have issues about letting go.

*long pause whilst Pepper hunts down funny and appropriate Black Books quote, gets sidetracked by YouTube clips* 

Er, anyhow... I'm mostly used to writing fic for shows and films and books that are 'closed'. The X-Men movies were the closest thing I had to an open fandom, and every time a new film came out I cursed as half a dozen fics in my brain suddenly became AU. Okay, X-Men fandom is all hopelessly AU anyhow (canon itself has a bazillion different, contradictory universes going), but I tended to concentrate on the films, 'cause that was how I got into it. And X2 and X3 buggered things up for me. *g* Yes, I was glad to have them (although I'd have been gladder if they hadn't been a bit crap), but it put a crimp in my writing. It wasn't that I couldn't write the fic... but for some reason, I didn't so much want to. My favourite fic – the one I felt was everything I wanted to say about my pairing of choice, and how it would evolve and play out, were I the one in charge – was canon when I started, and AU by the time I finished it. Irritating, I tell you.

So now Stargate is coming to an end (yeah, okay, only sort of coming to an end, what with the films and Atlantis, and whatever other spin-offs they come up with). There's a freedom in that. To me, it seems like Stargate is saying, "We've done our bit. Here's everything that happened for the last ten years. Go play." I'm hoping that there'll be lots of fic that takes the world Stargate established, and tells me What Happens Next. 

I don't know why I'm such a sucker for keeping things canon – it's not like Stargate doesn't have AUs of its own. Maybe it's the challenge – fitting what they've established to what I want to write. Maybe it's because I think that's the characters, that's what they're like, that's what they do, and - good or bad, whether I like what the writers / directors / actors have done or not – I feel I should work within those parameters if I want to write those characters and not someone totally different. I dunno. 

I don't feel like that with Doctor Who, incidentally – I feel like the current incumbents are getting it wrong... but the less said about that, the better. On the other hand, if I wrote fic for DW, I'd still feel compelled to use their canon - no matter how much it annoyed me. Which may be why I don't write fic for it.

I do love AUs, and I'm always particularly impressed by people who can make them still feel precisely like the characters I know and love (String Theory, I'm looking at you), and one of my favourite things to be told, when I've written something, is that it really felt/sounded like the character. That gives me much glee. I have a violent dislike of out-of-character fic, but if someone's a good writer, they can convince me of a lot of things, up to and including some of the worst atrocities perpetrated by badfic. OOC - to me - doesn't mean things that happen to the characters, differences in their circumstances that have pushed their lives or characters in a different direction. OOC is when the characters do things differently for no good reason. Weepy!Sam springs to mind here, falling into the arms of Bully!Jack, and... okay, you all know the badfic clichés. But, given the right circumstances... 

So, in conclusion, it's over but it's not... I'm contradictory in my fannish ways... I don't like weepy!Sam... I can't seem to focus on saying one thing... and I want to see lots of What Happens Next fic. 

Love you all. :) 

---

That Black Books quote that sidetracked me...

Bernard: What are you doing?

Manny: Stripping the chicken.

Bernard: What for?

Manny: Well I could make chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken sandwiches...

Bernard: You could make a chicken cravat but it's just hassle. We'll get a take-away.

Manny: There's loads of things I can do with this.

Bernard: It's a chicken! Chicken is finite! You've got to move on. How are you going to cope when somebody dies?

Manny: Well I'll just use the legs. It's thrifty.

Bernard: It's disgusting, is what it is! This is how Jeffrey Dahmer and that lot get started. They can't let go. Old boxes of fried chicken lying around. And, and then a friend says "I have to leave town" and vrooom! Out with the Black & Decker. There's bits of them lying around like nibbles. You've got to see a shrink.

Manny: (holds up the chicken wings) Have a wing! It's crunchy.

Bernard: Can't you see you're not right?!

And a Black Books clip that's completely irrelevant, but nevertheless funny...